MMA Fighting - BTL: Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Reaction, Plus O'Malley vs. Vera 2, UFC 299, Joshua vs. Ngannou

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

The weekend the combat sports world has been waiting for is upon us with Joshua vs. Ngannou going down on Friday, while the loaded UFC 299 event takes place Saturday in Miami, Fla. Francis Ngannou will look to shock the boxing world once again as he faces Anthony Joshua, while Sean O'Malley defends his UFC bantamweight title for the first time in an attempt to exercise the demons in a rematch with Marlon Vera. On an all-new episode of Between the Links, the panel discusses the Joshua vs. Ngannou fight that takes place in Saudi Arabia, the stakes involved for Ngannou win or lose, and what will happen with his MMA career based on the results. Additionally, they'll discuss the storyline angles regarding O'Malley vs. Vera, where both guys go should they capture the title, if Merab Dvalishvili should have a rooting interest, Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint-Denis, the most interesting fight outside of the top two, the announcement of Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium on July 20 on Netflix, and a Q&A final round — if it gets that far. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. MAFATING Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice.

I'm Esther Lynn, welcomes you to a brand-new edition of BTL back on Thursday this week. But there's so much happening. We literally have no time to waste. So let's get right into this. Let's introduce the combatants first. He's back again. You just heard from him on our preview show moments ago.

He's Mr. No Gray area. The emperor of the hot take, the Cannibal Kid and Moore, M.M.A. Fighting Zone, Jed Mishu. Hello, Jed. How are we doing on this Thursday? It's been so long since last we spoke, Mike. But now we get to talk about the real.

I'm very excited about. the stuff we're going to talk about. So let's get into it. And back on the show, the birthday boy himself, the Prince of Positivity, the Man, the Myth, the Legend, Canada Zone and MMA Fighting Zone,

my best friend too, Alexander Cayley, aka welcome back to the program. What up, guys? Well, happy to be back. There is a crap load to talk about and even more so after this morning. We had, Mike, Mike is a, you know,

as a great host, sends us the show schedule at like a day ahead. And we're like, oh, we're pretty loaded as it is. And then something happened this morning. And I'm like, I guess we got to talk about it. I guess we got to talk about it and react to it. People want to know. I'm still not sure I believe it.

Well, I mean, let's get it. Let's just get right into that, all right? Because this is a bit of break. It's very rare on this program that we get to actually talk about big news that happened on this day. But that happened today. curveball thrown by the fine folks at Netflix. They released this promo video around 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

And it's announcing that Jake Paul, who just boxed up a young man by the name of Ryan Borland in a fight that no one thought would be competitive. I think Jake Paul is a minus 17,000 favorite heading into that fight. And then three, four, five, I don't know, less than a week later, we find out he's boxing Mike type. July 20th, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and that it's happening on Netflix.

So, Jed, didn't see this coming from a mile away. I probably should have at this point in 2024. But what is your reaction to this? Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, July 20th, Cowboy Stadium, my man. It took, I'm glad we didn't like talk about this immediately. we didn't do like a reaction pod because it gave me a little more time to grab my head around this it's both incredibly on brand and also super unexpected and weird by the time he steps into the ring mike tyson will be 58 years old and that feels like that's spot on for what jake

paul's been doing at the same time it's still mike tyson like that's still that's the best opponent he will have faced in a boxing ring even if it is still severely favorable to Jake in many respects. But most importantly, what this is, is it's him, it's Jake Paul getting back to the brand. He has spent two fights now boxing, quote unquote, real boxers, and they're real boxers. They drew a paycheck boxing. But they ran right over them. They were handpicked matchups to like, hey, and I'm not knocking Jake Paul for doing this.

Points were made by many people. that's about the level of opposition you'd expect for someone in his position. He just happens to be doing it on bigger stages because he was independently famous. So all of that's fine, but it's not why we started covering him. It's not why people tune in to watch him boxers. They're here for spectacle. They're here for a show. They're here for something outrageous that maybe they hadn't even thought of, but now I kind of can't stop thinking about it.

Mike Tyson's perfectly it. Mike Tyson, for his many personal faults and all that comes with that still managed, has still managed to captivate the imaginations of the broader world and certainly the combat sports world, even into his 50s. People want to see Mike Johnson fight Roy Jones Jr. They want to see him fight fatal or any of these other insane things. It still brings it out because of nostalgia or what have you. And Jake Paul is now going to capitalize on that with.

Dallas, you know, Cowboy Stadium or whatever. When Cowboys Stadium came out, think about Dana saying, yeah, we're definitely going to go there. Did I miss that? Hadn't happened yet. Jake Paul's doing it. He's doing it in as big a fashion as I think he can reasonably do. And I'm interested. I can't say I'm excited because in either end of this, it's pretty awful.

But I can't help but look at it like a train wreck. Mike, I am forced to stare at this and think about it a lot. Okay, interested is the word Jed kind of described. Not excited, but interested. Perhaps a sprinkle of intrigue. What was your reaction to this? We saw how a lot of the UFC fighters passed at present, other boxers have reacted to this.

Mostly negative? Where are you at with Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson? Incredibly interested. It's grotesque. It's grotesque. grotesque, but much of this business is. And this is no, this to me felt like

a very logical progression of where we were heading with the Jake Paul boxing storyline, with the influencer boxing, with legends coming back for exhibition bouts. Tyson himself did it with Roy Jones Jr. Floyd Mayweather's done a bunch. He's made a whole other,

he's had a whole other post, like actual competitive career, just making, I don't you want to know how much money, taking exhibition bouts in Japan and Dubai and I don't know. And he's not stopped. As far as you know, Mayweather's got three more exhibition busts lined up.

I have no idea. And I didn't get the sense that Tyson was done with after Roy Jones either. Like it would have been kind of a cool, like kind of a nice sendoff, you know, two legitimate heavyweight boxing legends, you know, putting that, that bow on their career. But I remember the event doing pretty well, like, as far as least traffic wise and the buzz. So I'm like, they can't.

Like, I just don't think they can walk away so neatly. And sure enough. Sure enough, Tice has given another go in probably the most, in the eyes of, you know, a traditional boxing fan, probably the most reprehensible way possible. Unless they really feel like he can knock out Jake Paul, which is certainly a possibility,

though I would, I will caution people, this obviously has to be an exhibition bout. And I would imagine an exhibition about neither guy is going to be going more than 25% trying to take the other dude's head off. I don't know. Maybe I should be more optimistic. Maybe they are going to go for the knockout, try to make a moment.

But I sincerely doubt it. So you're just kind of getting the thrill might not be the best word. But, you know, the intrigue of seeing, oh, wow, this friggin YouTuber fighting one of the boxing's greatest champion. So it's kind of a weird thing. But the last thing I want to say on that, my initial reaction is Jed mentioned, like, reasons you might want to watch Tyson fight and do this, like, nostalgia and what have you. And like, the other reason is because we might just be insane. We're all insane. This business is insane.

And we might be insane for even talking about this because it's a real thing that's happening. And the fact that we have to talk about it seriously and actually dedicate like, you know, professional airtime to it is insane. This whole business is insane. And I'm going to watch the fight. I'm sure I'll probably get a kick out of the whole thing. And I really don't know what that says about me mentally. What's your biggest takeaway from this announcement, AK?

Is it Jake Paul fight? Is it just the fight itself or is there's like something else to it? Was there, because I know for me it was like, okay, this is super weird, but it was also like, damn, Netflix is really getting after this thing. They got raw. They're really pushing into the live sports thing. It seemed like by certain reports, like they were starting to like funnel downwards, but now they're making these huge acquisitions.

They're trying different things. They have great sports docs. They're really getting into the sports and the live shows altogether. That was like my biggest takeaway is like, man, Netflix is really getting into this thing. But then like Jake Paul and Mike Tyson and then you have all the sort of moral fiber questions about it. But what was your biggest takeaway when you found this out? Not really reaction, but biggest like, oh shit kind of moment with this. I don't want to hear about moral fiber or anything like that when it comes to Jake Paul or Mike Tyson.

All that stuff's out the window. You got to put all that crap aside. But yeah, the fact that Netflix is making such a huge swing here is the real story. They've had some unfortunate luck with live streaming before. I think last year, one of their biggest events was supposed to be the Love is Blind finale, and it was apparently a disaster. I think it got delayed an entire day. I think it was, I think they filmed it, and it was supposed to be live, and it got delayed almost like an entire day. I don't watch the show.

I think I watched the first season of it, but my social media was flooded with everyone asking, where's the love is blind finale? And this was on for hours, just hours, what hours are people tweeting, where's the love is blind finale? And it was not a good look for Netflix. I think they ended up just like sort of putting it out the next day, which at that, at that, point, you know, the damage had been done. So this is them taking another shot at it. And again, it's not just Netflix. We know a lot of streaming services. This is the next, this is the next field of this particular like battle. It's, it's, who can get these live streaming rights. We just again, Netflix again, with the Monday Night Raw, right? So they're all in. They're all in on it.

And this kind of fits their portfolio, right? They're not strictly going after traditional sports. They're engaging in you know, WWE, influencer boxing, exhibition ballots with guys like Mike Tyson, with people like Jake Paul. So that is the huge story here. If this lands, if they stream this properly and this lands, and Netflix has been doing great lately, by the way, they've bounced. I know they had a bit of a drop,

but when they did their whole subscribers, they cut down on subscribers sharing their accounts thing, all the stuff went back up. They've cut a lot of costs as far as, like, I think, retaining certain shows and I think producing shows. So Netflix is trending upwards, and this could take them, I mean, they're already at the top, I believe, the streaming war still,

but this could keep them up there for a long time. if these kind of combat sports things land. And just to keep it, I may relate it, it wouldn't surprise me if at some point in the future, obviously UFC or some other organization tries to work out some live streaming deal with Netflix as well. What was your biggest takeaway from the announcement yet? Is it Netflix taking a big swing here with entertainment and sports and live streaming? Or was this more about Jake and Mike? I don't.

Yeah, Netflix is getting into live streaming. Yeah, of course. They're one of the biggest media companies in the world. Of course they're going to be, I mean, they've said it for years. They're going to do it. So I was just like, oh, okay, this is a step in that direction. But it was not a major takeaway to me. The major takeaway was, this is weird.

I can't believe that this is the timeline we live in where this is a thing that's happening. Like, what was it? Three years ago at this point? Two years ago? I'm not, I'm not Jose. The time flurs to me. we were like, I'm not sure if this Disney kid can beat up Ben Ascran in a boxing ring. And then now look where we are.

It's yeah, 57 year old Mike Tyson, but that's still Mike Tyson, man. There's still some real to that. So the biggest takeaway is primarily, holy shit, what is going on in the world that this is the timeline we live in? Yeah. I mean, I guess a lot of people are asking like, is this good or bad? like people are saying Mike Tyson might get killed in there like all this stuff about the age and all of that stuff should it be sanctioned should it be exhibition I as of now there's literally no answer to this question yeah there's no answer to this question I reached out to the commission I was told that all the information they officially have is that the promoter has booked a fight card in that venue in their state on that date they have not been provided a single fight officially on the books. So once all those fights come in, they will review them on a fight-by-fight basis

determining which fight will be sanctioned, which won't. But there's no way. It's Texas, believe. It's Texas. There's no way. I mean, well, it's any athletic commission would sanction it because they're all fraud. Florida would sanction it. Florida would sanction it.

They're all frauds, but Texas is arguably like the most fraudulent. It's for sure getting sanctioned. By no reasonable metric should it be. Yeah, it's for sure getting sanctioned. Oh, okay. Unless they find like an actual like legitimate heart condition on Tyson, they're going to run it. They shouldn't by no means should this be allowed morally, but they're for sure going to do it. Are you betting on that to AK?

Are you betting this is going to be an exhibition? But I don't think we're still going to watch it anyways. This passes the mom test for sure. It's it's an exhibition boat. I don't see how this can be sanctioned as a pro bout. I mean, the difference in experience, the difference in age. I'm not, I, I am not like, doing. The difference in experience is not nearly as bad as like some of the other ones.

Yeah. Jake's got, whatever, 12 fights now. 10 against, I mean. 10 fights against a 57 year old. That's fine. I think they have to look at, I mean, again, just overall pro record. And at the age thing matters more. Like, why, I just don't see why would this need to be a pro fight?

I don't know. That's my, I don't, Jake Paul's not doing exhibitions. Jake Paul is, he is actively, like his entire thing has been, I am trying to fight for a championship.

I am trying to be a legitimate boxer. No, no, he's also kept the door open for like money fights, which I think it's pretty much just what this is. I don't think. Yeah, but a money,

a money fight exhibition that, not like why would he want it to be an exhibition? Why? The only reason he would accept it as an exhibition is if this fight cannot be sanctioned. he very clearly would want this to be real because it adds another number to the resume. It's a won over a former champion. I just totally disagree.

I don't think he cares. I don't think that's insane. I don't think that's insane at all. I don't think your average person cares either. Do you think your average person knows the difference between, oh, he beat Mike Tyson a pro bout or he beat Mike Tyson an exhibition bout? They don't. It doesn't matter to the average person, but you're still at you, like, you are treating

this as if Jake Paul is purely looking at this as a business opportunity, which seems to me he's pretty clearly established that he's a crazy person and actually wants to be like a professional boxer because otherwise why the hell would he have boxed the last two gibronies he did like this is part of his journey to sportsing like for sure he wants this to be a legitimate fight Mike doesn't care this is a payday for Mike I don't think I don't think Paul cares out it doesn't matter to him whether he beats Mike Tyson in a pro bout or exhibition about either way let's say he beats Mike Tyson and it'll be on his public record. Like, we'll know, everyone will know.

There's no difference whether it makes him 10 and 1 or it keeps him 9 in 1 with an exhibition about over Mike Tyson. People don't care. I don't think he has. And I don't see why it would be. I have no idea why it would be. What does it matter? Millions of people are going to watch this on Netflix

and not even know the difference between the exhibition or profile. The bigger question is, why do you think it won't happen? I agree that it fundamentally doesn't matter either way, but in that scenario, why would you default to exhibition? He's 58 years old. He hasn't fought competitively. Well, what does that have to do? Why does that matter, though?

Why does it matter? I would think they would look at that. When was his last probe out, Jed? No. So are you telling me that you think they won't sanction this? Because to me, that's the only question is whether they will sanction it. And if you think the Texas Commission won't stay. sanction this, you're wrong.

I don't think they even want to bother even having to take that chance or face that headache. They don't need to. He hasn't fought freshly in 19 years, Jed. Why would Tyson's camp even be like, yeah, let's go for a sanction about who can't. Why would they care? There's two sides to too. I don't, again, I don't believe Tyson's camp cares. I think they'll just do whatever to get the paycheck.

I think that there is a legitimate value to Jake Paul. There's a legitimate value to Jake Paul. for this to be professional. He would like it to be professional for his own ego, and the Texas Commission is not going to stand in the way of that. I just don't see why they would...

Again, I'm just not seeing the need for a pro-bought at all. It doesn't add anything. I don't think it changes anything. If we're going down that road, what's the need for this fight at all? Like, the need is not necessary here. Zero. Zero.

I don't need any of this thing, Kay. This is all to satisfy the whims of a rich little, Ohio boy. That's what I'm saying. That's what we're doing. And if we're going to do that, make it as uncomplicated as possible. Don't bother with sanctioning. Don't bother with any potential headaches that that could present. Even in Texas, even in Texas, there's still additional paperwork. I don't think it's complicated. I think you go to Texas and say we'd like to do this and they say,

I'll take $50 and here's your whole pass. That's $50, you know, and that's $50 that they can go in their pockets instead. So why even bother giving the Texas Commission a piece of that? How about that? Why get the Texas Commission a piece of any of this when they can take all the money themselves. Because this is all a vanity project for a rich little boy from Ohio. That's why it doesn't matter. It is more meaningful to him to have a legitimate win than an exhibition win. People won't tell the difference.

It doesn't matter to him. If he knocks out Mike Tyson to exhibition about, it makes no difference in Brinchney did it exhibition or pro. It's not going to make a difference. It'll be this viral clip that'll go around and it won't matter. It really won't matter. That makes a difference. It makes no difference.

You keep saying that and you have no justification for it. You just say it. Oh, okay. Here's my justification. Why are any bouts professional? Like if it doesn't make a difference and why are all bouts not just not exhibitions? So you think it's a reason?

You're making the case. No, no, stop. You're making the case. You're making the case that if he chaos Mike Tyson an exhibition bouts, oh, people's get back. Oh, no, I didn't count. No, I've never said that. That's literally what you're saying.

Oh, you just did? No, I am saying that fundamentally it is the same writ long. but that the devil is in the details. There's a reason Floyd Mayweather is doing exhibitions, because if something goes wrong, then he's still 50 and O Floyd. It does matter to say that there is no difference between exhibitions and professionals is a position to have,

but then why are all fights just exhibitions at that point? I never said that it doesn't matter. People will still love it. It will still be meaningful. It will not be as much. meaningful as it being a professional fight for whatever reason that is it will not be as meaningful also or whatever reason you have yet to name or whatever reason you have yet to name why it won't be the same it's the same and here here's a very specific one because the way exhibitions work if they

go to the cards no one wins that matters jake paul doesn't want to go like sure he wants to knock out montreson untrue roy joan rio joan's junior and mike tyson did they go They had a winner. Split draw. They had, but they had judges. They had judges. Are you serious? Hold on.

I have to look this up now. Yep. No, I think the rule, I don't remember. Judges, then that's a goddamn professional fight. It's not an exhibition. I don't think they had judges. I don't think they had judges. I just looked it up today.

It went to a split draw. How is that an exhibition? If it, like that, then this makes truly no sense if that had judges. Because there's no rules. It's an exhibition about it. They can do whatever they want with it. That's why. I mean, it was super bell and wistley.

You can have so much easier as if it's a major onus to get this sanction. I do a medical test and they fill out paperwork. They could have E. Casey Leiden be the judge if they wanted to. They go like E.C. Lyden decides it's an exhibition vote. There's no rule. There's nothing that says. In that sense, though, I will say I would be surprised if there's by head judges. So along those things, if it turns out to be an exhibition, I'm kind of with Jed on that,

that I would be surprised. I think they would go the Floyd Mayweather Logan route and be like, let's not like embarrass either guy. It goes the distance, both guys get their hand raised. Like, that's actually what I'm expecting to happen. I would be very surprised if anyone knocked anyone out. I'll be betting on a draw on that fight. Yeah, if you can. If you can, whatever it is, it'll be a draw bet one million percent.

Oh, we'll see what happens, guys. I love to see the enthusiasm. Yeah. Oh, let's all have fun, you know. Yeah, let's have some fun. We'll talk more about this in the coming months. That is July 20th, AT&T Stadium. But we have another boxing match to discuss.

And we talked about it for like 50 minutes earlier, but we're going to talk about a little bit more. Point for out one goes to you both did a tremendous job but I love the spunk from AK here I mean this guy just bringing in the thunder bringing some some fire bringing some fire

ridiculous I knew that was going to happen to I mean I planted that seed I knew this fight was going to take place there are no difference between good and bad things you fool you absolute indissault they're the same yeah yeah that's what we're saying

That's what everyone's saying. That's the argument. Sure. Yeah. Everything's the same. Everything's the same. That's what we're saying. All right.

Well, speaking of good and bad, it depends on what side of the fence you're on. It depends on who you talk to. We do have more boxing, more different kind of boxing, if you will. We have Anthony Joshua versus Francis Inganu going down. Yes, Francis Ganu back in the scored circle after taking Tyson Fury to the limit. Back at October, they returned to Saudi Arabia. and okay i'll start with you here because jett and i we talked about this on our preview show we dissected a whole bunch of different x's and o type things but i'm curious to get your thoughts on this do you feel

like the hype and build is there for this one more so than the tyson fury one like i i think it's exciting and i think people are talking about it i felt like there was more buzz behind the fury fight for some reason like i think this is more interesting on paper because we saw frances go in there with Tyson Fury and hang but maybe I don't know I just feel like the hype is not as big for this one do you feel the same I think it can never be as big as the first right

you know that the intrigue around the debut how's Francis going to do but I think what makes the buildup to this a little more intriguing is that there is more I and again this is a broad like social media gleaning I haven't spoke to like I haven't pulled like 10,000 people and asked them maybe we should do that in the comments I don't know

But I feel like there's more of that sense that Ingana could do something crazy, right? I pull off an upset here, which I don't agree with. I'm Joshua all the way. But I was the same way with, I was with the masses in the Tyson Fury, Francis Inganu fight.

I was like, Francis has no chance. Francis is either going to get just worked for 10 rounds or Fury is going to wear him down and finish them in the sixth, seventh round. I wasn't giving in France a chance. I was one of those people. I was one of those people who said it wouldn't be possible.

So, you know, think about all those doubters, all those guys in social media who were not hating on Francis, but we're saying like, ah, you know, it's great for him for getting the bag. He's just happy to be here. I was 100% wrong. Again, he got the knockdown. He looked fantastic. And in that sense, that's kind of what makes this so much more believable is, yes,

we know Anthony Joshua's more experienced. We know Anthony Joshua, you know, has more of a one hitter quitter than Tyson Furor. So he could easily knock Francis out. You can easily go the other way. But, man, it's hard to forget about what happened in October, isn't it? It's hard to be I went in October. Both guys kind of saying the right things. I guess you would want the trash talk to be a little more.

Maybe that's where it's lacking compared to what with the Fury and Gano stuff. But I'll lean towards this not being like the buildup, not being as big as the Furyian Gunnar fight. Again, it's hard to beat the first time. It's hard to beat sort of the mystery. And even those who thought that Fury was just going to wipe out, Francis, we're still like, well, I still want to see it happen. Like, I'm very curious.

So it can't quite match that level of intrigue. But it's close, man. And it's close. And again, it's to Francis' credit, it's the way they built it up to all the people involved for the way they hyped it up. That awesome video game promo was sick. But yes, I will lean towards the hype is not quite at the level of Angano Fury.

Jed, mom test. Where are you at with this one compared to the Fury fight? Are you getting anything about this? Or your non-combat friends hitting you up about this fight at all? Do you feel like the hype in the combat community and beyond is where it was for the Fury fight? I'm getting nothing from the outside, but I wasn't getting any from the outside for Fury and Ghanu either, really. So that's about the same.

We talked about this not that long ago. So by not that long ago, I mean an hour ago. So I'll keep it relatively short here. But for me, I'm more interested. Maybe the vibes feel just different because this is on a Friday maybe. And so it's just sort of weird in that regard. Was the last one on a Friday? I feel like it was on Saturday.

Yeah. It's weird. Friday's not fight night unless you're sometimes Bellator and PFL as they've done some weird shit. So like just the timing of when this will be happening at like 6.30 is sort of around the time I'm seeing for estimated ringwalks tomorrow. That makes a little less. But to me, the fight's more intriguing for the stuff I talked about this morning, which is the first time around we all thought, oh, this is great for Francis. He's going to lose. but he got his paycheck and that's fantastic.

This time around, I still feel that same way, but there is at least the kernel of, well, this man walks in the light. He is touched by God. He is the favorite child and things keep happening for him outside of what people would expect or what's reasonable to expect. And we did just see him do very well against Tyson Fury,

who is a more accomplished heavyweight than Anthony Joshua is, very different kind of heavyweight, but still maybe he has a clear path here. He hits her hard. Joshua, I think his chininess is a little overblown, but it's not like he has a bulletproof chin. And so there's more intrigue on, okay, I see a much more reasonable path to success for him the year.

So I'm more interested in what will happen tomorrow, even if I feel 95% on what we're going to get. So I don't know about the broader thing. I would guess that the Friday thing, has a lot to do with it. But for me, personally, I'm more interested. I mean, this is kind of a tough question to answer. I'm trying to find different ways to present this that we didn't already talk about, Jed.

So if you could paint the most interesting picture of how this fight goes and where the division goes and how this all plays out, like, how would you do it? Would it be just a super competitive fight that Joshua will? wins, but still in Gano's in play? Is Ingana just killing him? Like, if you could play, if you could play this out in your mind into the people here in the most interesting way that you can possibly think of, how would you do it? The most interesting way is probably some version where Francis Ngano looks like a good boxer, um, win or lose.

Like the truth is he didn't look like a great boxer against Tyson Fury. He looked like a big, strong dude who knew enough. and had enough tools to take advantage of the situation. But like if you've watched any boxing for most of the middle to end of that fight, Francis is doing nothing because he is trying to manage his cardio so he can do anything at all. And that's how Fury ends up jabbing his way to victory. If Francis can come out here and actually look like, oh, this isn't just that he hits really hard and he can do that to anyone, that's compelling, but it is limited.

Punchers' chances are limited for a reason. He comes out and like, oh, Francis can box little. Even if he loses, that makes matchups with Anthony Joshua, or not Anthony Joshua, sorry. Deonté Wilder and a rematch of fear way more compelling. And, I mean, certainly, look, we're MMA people. I don't care at all about Anthony Joshua. If Francis goes out here, looks like a good boxer,

and then knocks out Anthony Joshua, it's going to be deeply compelling for what is his, his future is in the boxing ring. So that's probably the most interesting outcome here. How would you do it, A.K.? What would be the most interesting way this fight could go tomorrow? Like, without being, you know, comic bookie? I mean, is it comic bookie to call for a, to, for Francis K.O.?

You know, I can't picture it. I can't picture it just like I couldn't picture him knocking Fury down. But again, I don't know. I don't see a realistic scenario where, again, just straight up colds Anthony Joshua. But we've seen stranger things in sports. Maybe Joshua has an off night. Maybe France is the best France we've ever seen.

Maybe the size difference matters. I don't know. I know it doesn't matter that much a heavyweight box, I understand. But Inganu is 20 pounds heavier than Joshua. That's kind of interesting. Though then again, the Comaesey Warrens. I think Zhang is 40 pounds heavier than Parker is 40, 50 pounds heavier. So maybe that won't matter.

But yeah, I can't think of anything more entreating than Inganu just somehow flatlining Joshua. It'll, it won't be, somehow, it will be less shocking than what we saw in October, you know, I mean, where, where, and God, and not only knocked Tyson Fury down, but depending who you asked and how you scored it, beat Tyson Fury in his first pro boxing bout. Like, this will be close to that, but maybe we won't connect that level. Maybe for some of the reasons that Jed said, there just doesn't quite seem to be that mainstream penetration for this bout either. So I don't know if it's, it'll, I mean, look, it'll go viral, it'll go crazy. It'll be, I don't know what it'll mean for for either man's career.

Like I think Joshua, I don't know if you can bounce back from being knocked out by, again, a guy in his second pro bout, even if it is a former UFC champion. And for Francis, man, it just raises the expectations to an insane level. Obviously, he would go on to fight the Fury Usook winner. People would love to see, I think, Fury and Ingano again, they would certainly love to see Engano. But, man, I don't know. I don't know what promoter like like I don't know what direction you go with him because suddenly he if anything

if he knocks out Joshua he becomes his own attraction and at that point of course he has to fight one of the guys from the May 18th about but then he's really wide open from to fight anybody we mentioned Deonti Wilder he mentioned he could again he could become the A side he could become the A side no more Joshua and Gano no more Fury in Ghana it'll be in Ghanu and then some other heavy weight they drag in but it definitely has to

come with a win that has to come on the win as much as I've said, I think I've written that like, and kind of Jed has mentioned, as long as in Ganu looks competent, kind of looks as good as he did against Fury, he'll be fine to continue to have a career. But a win makes him a legitimate boxing ace side, which again is not something I would have predicted, you know, 10 months ago. But here we are. So yeah, I want to see the, I want to see chaos and I want to see that chaos. Last thing on this. And then we'll move on to UFC 299, aka over under one year from today, March 7th, 2025. Will, I don't know why I'm saying over on it because it's a big does it.

But I'll just set the date at March 7th, 2025. Will Francis and Ghanu have competed in an MA fight for the PFL? Oh, oh, Mike, why do you ask the hard questions? Why are you so good at asking the hard questions? Without doing the math in my head regarding like the whole, you know, Fennon Fenerda said that he's going to wait for Francis. Don Davis said he's fine with waiting for Francis until 20. 2025 will Francis compete in the smart case in 2025?

Yes, yes. This is Prince of Positivity talking for sure. Again, I probably should have thought more about how the timing is going to line up. Again, with all the scenarios we just mentioned, if Francis does well in the fight, if he books another huge boxing match sometime later this year. And then who knows how that match goes? It's up for another big boxing match. But I do think Francis is get your LOLs ready.

I do think Francis is a man of his word. I do think he will compete for the PFL at least once and I do think it'll be sooner rather than later. So March 20205 doesn't stand too bad for me, Mike. I will go truth or whatever, truth or under whatever the whatever it says that he will fight on. He will fight for the PFL and it will happen in the first quarter of 2025. Jed, yeah or nay.

March 7, 2025, France and Ghana will have competed in a mixed martial arts bow for the Professional Fighters League. I'm going to go, no. I think he should. We talked about in the previous show this morning. I think that there is a big value to him going back to MMA, maybe not like full sale monetarily. He'll still do well, but you won't do his well in boxing. But there are just so many, like you need wins in life, even if they are over cans.

This is something we talked about in the show. I think there's a big benefit to the boxing model of people getting softball touches to build confidence, to just build rhythm. like get working and be different sport but I do think it would honestly behoove him if he goes out here lose to Joshua dude just go back beat up Hananah Faheda and then hey look he can still do this it reignites some of the interests around him we're no longer just just booking him in boxing matches based on good vibes and cash grabs it's like oh remember when he sent this dude to the shadow realm because we remember we saw him knock down Tyson Fury like but we haven't seen Francis send somebody out since Depe.

Like we have not seen Francis do the Francis thing in a long time at this point. So I think it would behoove him to go back and do that. But it's not going to happen. He wins this fight. He's not accepting another fight until he fights the Usook Fury winner. And I believe that those two are rematching regardless of outcome there. So he might be on the shelf for a year, like at least six months to eight months. And win more likely he loses this fight.

he either can get Fury like that that's still on the table but I think he loses this fight and we get Deonté Wilder because whatever happens tomorrow everyone's interested in Deontay Wilder versus Francis there is nothing if Joshua goes out there and box them up

that's never been Deontay Wilder's game Deonti Wilder versus Francis Ngano is two Kaijus just throwing haymakers until one falls down and everybody is super into that and so that fight can happen at any point in time. And I would suspect that that's next for Francis with a loss tomorrow,

which means probably not in the PFL by this time next year, you know? That's tomorrow. Lots going on this weekend. PFL going on right now. We get this card tomorrow. And then we're going to talk about what's going to happen on Saturday. Very excited for Saturday. That's coming up next.

But the point for round two goes to Jedmishu. Nicely done just a well thought out. Ooh. perfect answer to questions I somewhat asked an hour and a half ago, so he was ready for all of that. Guys, I know we got weird boxing matches and out of the box boxing matches, but where amoefighting.com? We've been building up to this time period for months now.

This Saturday, Miami, Florida, UFC 299. What a card this is, tremendous main card. A lot of preliminary fights with stakes, their storylines, lore, especially with this main events, we have the rematch, the highly anticipated rivalry chapter two between Sean O'Malley and Marlon Vera. But this time, it is for the UFC Bannamweight Championship of the world. Sean O'Malley puts title in line for the first time. Jed, you have been a man who has been on many of our shows.

I've not listened to No Betz Bard yet, who has been very confident in Marlon Vera beating Sean O'Malley. And there are oftentimes where you make these. types of predictions in a reaction to a fight being made. Then, fight week comes, you have to play some bets. You go and you watch tape. Maybe you see things from different angles. Maybe you look at things from different perspectives.

So we're 48 hours away from UFC 299. Where are we at here? Excitement levels for this main event. Do you have the same confidence now than you did maybe three months ago and how this fight could play out? As far as excitement levels go, I'm interested. The main event is like just it's great. Like it's a good fight.

It's fun fight. It's probably not my top five fights of this weekend. Like maybe it is. It's a good fight. But like the, I mean, just look at the rest of 299, man. There's some absolute bangers going on on Saturday, baby. Like, boy, I've been lost on to need. That should be everyone's fight of the week.

Like, if that's not your fight of the weekend, I don't know what's wrong with you. But you're doing it incorrectly. I mean the rest is main card I guess we're going to talk about the main card so I don't want to tread too far on future toes but like there's just a whole bunch of good shit happening on Saturday baby the main event is also one of those

I'm not here to say as bad it's just not to my taste as one of the best ones I when this fight was announced I immediately thought oh Chia's gonna beat him like I get why we're doing it but Chita's gonna beat him and then that's gonna be quite funny because Chita Vera is probably like at best the sixth best

been waiting in the world and he's going to be a champ. And I still think gun to my head that that's the route I'm choosing. I don't, I feel a lot less confident. I've got my preview on this fight coming up. I think today, maybe it's tomorrow. I submitted it yesterday. And as you dive into it, it feels real simplistic. This fight, like this matchup is very much Connor McGregor versus Nate DS.

in that Connor Rangie Stryker, been killing everybody, probably better than a lot of people think he is, but also worse than like his most ardent fans believe he is. And against Nate, like, Cheeto and Nate Diaz are different in a lot of respects, but the fundamental piece about them that makes their game work is that they are just otherworldly tough. You cannot physically harm either of them. You can win decisions over them, but you can't defeat them in a untimed bout, basically. And that's interesting because as I like through that lens, then the question becomes, well, is this Conor Nate 1 or Conor Nate 2?

And that's going to largely be dependent on Sean O'Malley. Because if Sean comes out here and just like, hey, I've been saying I'm going to knock him out, he and his team, you know, have been saying we believe we can knock him out. If he comes out here and just tries to knock out Cheeto, he is going to get tired, he's going to get slow. And Cheeto's not. And Cheeto's going to start hitting him as his fight goes on. It's going to go bad for Sean. O'Malley as the fight goes on. If he doesn't, if he comes with a really disciplined approach here and I was like, hey,

I just want to minimize my risks here against Cheeto. I am much faster. I have better movement. I kick him a bunch of the legs. I'm going to move around outside. I'm going to have Carlos Condit Nick Diaz as him. And people might not be super big fans of how this goes, but I'm going to do what Connor did to Nate in the rematch and survive to win a decision.

He can win. And it will largely be on whatever his plan is. is and to an extent what Cheeto can then impose back in opposition. Gun to my head, I'm going Cheeto here, but it is a legitimately fascinating fight to see sort of where these two dudes are at the way that their styles mesh against each other. And I think it's going to be fun. I at least hope it's going to be fun and we don't get a full-blown kick-heavy decision for 25 minutes. A.K., where are your excitement levels for this main event?

I feel like this has been, I don't know, kind of like we're at within Gano and Joshua. Like, everyone was so excited and it was intriguing heading in and then Fight Week comes around. And it's like, I don't know if it's just mixed in with everything else happening in the combat sports world right now. But where are your excitement levels? I think once we get to Saturday, we are going to be friggin ready to go. And even by tomorrow, we might be like just revs and engines revved ready to drive. 500 miles an hour towards Miami. But right now, excitement levels for this main event.

I'm excited as hell. I'm excited as hell. For the reasons you mentioned, it is hard, I think, for anyone who's so deep into combat sports to like get excited about anything that far ahead of time. Well, I say that far ahead of time when there's another event in the middle, a very notable event, right? We've got in Ganu, we've got Anthony Joshua.

People feel Europe is happening right now as we speak. I'm not saying that's like something that people had marked on their calendars, but this is how busy the combat sports week has been, right? There's just constantly something happening. And it is buzzworthy of just for, you know, the existence of Cedric Dumbay, who's fighting on the top of the cards. So that's happening.

And I'm sure there's a lot of people who aren't even, didn't even know that. So yes, it's, it's, we kind of have to, especially when, you know, since we're working, we kind of have to manage our excitement levels, manage our anticipation. But I was working on my UFC 299 predictions.

And as I was doing so, I was just getting so high. just writing about every fight. I only do the main card stuff, but even just looking at the prelims, I was like Curtis Blaze, Jelton Alameda, I'm super excited for,

I'm on the Jelts and Elmada train all the way. I have no idea how he wins this fight, but I'm crossing my fingers that he can. That's not my prediction. I've leaning towards Blades. That's a whole other thing. And then you've got, yeah, other contend, Mattius Gamrod,

and RDA is on there. I think Pedro Muño's Carla Phyllis, me a great fight. You want Kutalapa, Philip Lins. That's a no contest waiting to happen, and I just can't wait to see why. Oh, come on.

that fights the most fun. I'm just saying how will it end, Jed? What crazy circumstances will have this so that neither man has their hand raised somehow? I don't know. You were talking about crazy circumstances. One more fight down the list, A.K. Oh, boy.

Oh, Devalador. That's right. Michelle Beheada, Michael Oleg Sachic. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably my number two of the weekend. Oh, my God. I'm pumped for all these fights. I'm probably more pumped for the main event than Jed is.

He's right. It might not even be the best fight on the main card, but it's a great, great, great fight. It's got the storyline. I'm putting aside all the stuff of, oh, should, you know, Cheeto have gotten the shot over Sanhagen and Umar and Marabas. Fine. We got to, we're two days away.

We can't worry about that now. It's a good matchup. And I'm actually picking O'Malley, Mike. I know Jed gave his prediction, so I won't get the chance to do so tomorrow. I know I won't be on a preview. show i'm going mike i'm going omali by knockout first man first man to finish chito vera i'm going i'm calling it wow wow that'll be uh i mean that's actually a really good segue to this next

question honestly uh i will reveal i do a bit on this fight i am taking marlin vera plus five and a half points i think it's like minus 110 i think there's value there i'd do this fight is very close. I think we are going to the cards. But what, AK, you bring this out and there are a lot of questions surrounding this division. I know we kind of talked about this on the roundtable a little bit, but the big question is,

where does Sean O'Malley go if he wins this fight? Especially if he does so in impression fashion. I mean, there's Marab. He seems to be turning course a little bit. Even at the media day, it was like, I'm fighting Marab next. He's going to, I guess, apparently Marab is going to weigh in his backup as well. So he's in Miami. Of course, he's going to sit front row.

there's the boxing realm, there's the Iliot-Tuporia idea as well. So if you could actually place a wager, let's just say Sean O'Malley wins, and you can place a wager on this, will Sean O'Malley and Marab Du Walshvili have a face-off in the middle of the octagon if he wins on Saturday? Oh, that's not necessarily.

Will he fight Marov next, just while they have a face-off? If there's a face-off, because look, if there's a face-off, they're going to friggin fight. Unless something crazy happens, they're going to friggin fight. If the UFC allows to jump over the barricade and get into the Othadon, that they're going to fight. I saw Daniel Paul and Brock Lesnar face off once. And I'm still waiting,

and I'm still waiting for that fight. So I don't know. I think they will face it. That's something crazy. I saw DDP and Izzy face off. I still don't know if that fight. That probably will happen if I fought. It's definitely going to be.

I can't, again, I'm hedging here because I do think they're going to face off, but I don't know if it's going to be next. Now, you did bring up a. sort of the roundtable we did. And I'll just say it right now. My answer, I wrote for this roundtable, you guys can find it on MAFighting.com, has aged extremely poorly.

I was, I got a little excited when Ryan Garcia appeared on the MAA hour and started talking some business about O'Malley, saying he's to kill him in a UFC fight. And I thought, yeah, that'd be pretty hilarious. I think if he wants to go into the UFC and fight in the Octagon and fight under MMA rules against O'Malley, UFC should jump on that. I don't know if everyone has been following Ryan Garcia's social.

media activity over the past few days. It's out there. It's a bit out there. If you're late to the party, I think a lot of the tweets are deleted, unfortunately. But suffice to say, he went on quite a few rants, several rants in many different directions. It got a lot of attention. But he has a fight coming up, of course, Devin Haney on April 20th, so he has that. But after that, I don't know where this guy's head.

I don't know where the guy's head is out right now. I don't know where it's going to be after that fight. and now again, looking at where his mental state might be, I'm wondering if all the stuff about going to the O.C. Might have been a bit of chatter. It might have been a bit of idle chatter that Ryan maybe wasn't serious about it. Or if he's serious about it, but it doesn't actually have any basis in reality. So I may have to pull back my Ryan Garcia prediction there.

The right thing to do, of course, is to fight Marab. Like I said, I do believe there will be a face-off. Will he end up fighting Marab next? I got a weird feeling that Toporio fight is going to happen somehow. I don't want it. I think it's silly. But I just have a feeling he still avoids Marab at least for one more fight. So, yeah, face off, yes, Marab next.

I don't think so. Jed, what say you? Marab, Toporia, boxing, if Sean wins, even if we have a face-off. Is it Marab next? Are we going to go that route? Is Marab over enough for the UFC to just be like, all right, let's just do this. There's no other option. Yeah, I think Marob's over enough.

I mean, one, Dana White never makes fights on fight night. Like, we all know this. Well known for not making fights on fight night. And yet after Marab's last performance, he was like Marab's next. So I just take that to the bank. That's as good as gold for sure. But like, I also believe that it is true that he's over enough. I mean, Sean O'Malley came out two weeks ago, a week ago.

I don't remember the timeline, but it was just like, he had come out and said, you know, Marab's an option, but I'm still interested in Tupuri or some other stuff. Like, I want to do the biggest fights and then got such backlash from the fans that he was like, JK guys, Marob's it. Like you guys said, don't do the Tuporia stuff. Got it. Loud and clear. Marob's next.

And again, like maybe he could be lying or changing it up. But I feels like he, Marab has done what Bala Muhammad has been unable to. He took an opportunity and converted it in a meaningful way, not just with the brass, but with the fan base. And now he gets to weigh in as a backup sidebar. Can you imagine, like both Cheeto and Sean said they'd fight Marab if either misses weight? I can genuinely not imagine a worse transition between fighting Chito Vera to Marab Válezvili. Those are not remotely similar human beings or what they bring to the tape. So credit to them if that happens, knock on what it doesn't.

But I do think ultimately Rob's going to get the shot. Maybe there's a little bit of gamesmanship. Maybe it takes a little more time and it's not like, okay, international fight week, let's go. But I think the momentum is all there. And there's not enough actual interest in Garcia. Dupuria is just kind of floating it. But I think fans would riot if Dupuria and Sean in two of the four best weight classes. start doing this dumb shit instead of defending it's the multipliable contenders.

So I think Rob's got it. Yeah. I mean, look, if Sean does what a, if Sean goes out there and just, if he 13 seconds, Cheeto Vera, he's probably getting a deporia fight. If you want it, he's going to get it. So I don't think that's going to happen, but I'm not ruling it all altogether. So I ask you, Jed, final question of this round. What is the most interesting result for this division?

Is it Cheeto winning for one, because then we don't have to even ask these questions about early support? We know what Chito's going to do. He's going to stay in his division. He's going to fight the next band up. Plus, there is the Ecuadorian market, which is pretty big. I guess like there's 40 Ecuadorian press members that are actually in Miami right now. So Chito is like a big portion of the promotion for this card in his home country.

And it would mean a whole hell of a lot to Ecuador, if Chito Vera can go ahead and get this done. So if you were the UFC Bannamweight Division's commissioner, what would you hope to see on Saturday night when the dust holes? I mean, if I am, I've got to hope that Sean O'Malley wins. And if he does it impressively, that's, that's better. But I think that's got to be where you hope things go. If Cheeto wins, like you said, there are there are good points to that. It's not a total loss. But we can all be really honest about what's going to happen. There's a world Sean O'Malley beats marab vallisvili i do not believe we live in that current world but there is one out there in the many universes that exists i am extremely skeptical that there is any universe in which chito vera beats

maraud valishvili they both fought a lot we've seen them fight a lot barring just the best strike of chito's career he's going to get marab super hard and so you would be losing sean o'malley who is an ascending star a guy who has been bookmarked to be kind of that next level star Interestingly enough, Teporea has basically already passed him in that. And no one was talking about Tuporia two years ago when it was all like Sean O'Malley's next big thing. But he still has the bones to greater stardom behind him. And he loses the Cheeto.

That's going to take a major hit. And Cheeto is very, very popular and could be big. Cheeto cannot beat Moraub. And so that's also limiting. So I think if I'm putting my eggs in a basket, I'm putting them in the Sean basket and hoping against Hope he gets it done. and then hoping against Hopi also gets it done against Marab. A.K., same for you.

Is that the most interesting result, Sean winning? Not just for a business for the division as well. I don't know if, yeah, I don't know if it's interesting. Again, I can't help but look at it in a business way. And I haven't seen the, oh, I think I have seen the betting lines. And Cheeto is a pretty decent underdog, I think. I was looking at Giraff Kings, like plus 230 or something. Guys, listen to No BetSpart.

They, Jedd and G.C. Definitely know more about this stuff than I do. So it wouldn't be like an unexpected result of Sean O'Malley wins. It's certainly I would think what the UFC is pushing for, even given that Cheeto clearly has some sort of international appeal. He's also a company man. They love Cheeto. He loves the UFC. He never says a bad word about the UFC.

He's usually one of the first people to step forward and kind of not like call out people for complaining about fighter pay, but he's definitely not like backing people up when the discussion happens. He's very much a, I'm very happy with what I do. I'm very grateful to the UFC for what they give me. And again, for his purposes, that's fine. He has made a very good living as a UFC fighter. So I'm not judging him by that at all. So yeah, UFC would be more than happy to see Cheeto win. They know he's going to show up.

They know he's going to fight whoever they want. Jed's right. Probably would be very bummed out to put him up against Morab next. That's probably just not going to go his way. But yes, it's not a bad alternative. alternative if this Sean O'Malley hype train does hit a snag. Notice I say hit a snag does not stop because Sean O'Malley can lose on Saturday and still go on to become not like maybe not McGregor level, become a pretty damn big star.

For me, it was really the Sterling fight. That was the maker break. I do feel like if the Sterling fight had not gone his way, that really would have lowered the ceiling on how far he could go. But the way he won it, the fact that he beat a guy who was pretty heavily favored seemed like a stylist and nightmare, the way the UFC jumped on it and immediately put the knockout onto YouTube for free, which they never, ever do. That was already put him at a level that he can't drop from, regardless of what happens

on Saturday. I don't know what O'Malley is thinking if he loses, if he wants to, you know, is willing to say, you know, doesn't go and chase other opportunities, is what wants to work his way back to another title shot, wants to work his way back to a third shot at Vera. I think that's a very sellable fight, even if he loses, because the first fight felt incomplete in a way, right? Not discrediting Vera's win, but it was incomplete. So I still think that O'Malley, an O'Malley win is the best thing for the UFC.

And maybe just for MA in general, again, given the mainstream appeal that this guy has, if that matters to people. So again, I've talked myself to an O'Malley knockout. And maybe that's just why I am stuck on that idea and how, man, how much that would have people buzzing if it happened. All right. That is the main event. There's a lot more to this card. And that's what we're going to talk about in round four. So the point for round three goes to.

Jedmishu. It's two to one, nicely done. And we'll get ready for him. How you feeling, A.K.? Back against the wall. Yeah, I'm a little discouraged. I'm a little discouraged. My corner should take a good look at me right now. I'm just saying, I'm not good. I want to go back out there.

Mike, I want to go back out there for the fourth. I've just put my corner may have to protect me for myself. But let's go. Ring the damn bell. You're more Calvin Cater than Shamil Gazeve. Yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly, exactly. I'm also by the way if AK does win this round we will go to the knockout round and we're going to turn that over to you so if you guys want to put your questions in super chatters you cross the line super chatters you get the best shot here we will take the top two questions top two questions if you super chat them in you get to jump the line top two will be used for the knockout round so stay tuned for that

But let's go to the rest of you. See 2.99. We have Dustin Poyer versus Benoit Sontini five rounds at 155 pounds. Describe Porier versus Santany in one word and then show your work. Oh, I'm sorry, you got cut off. It was like, okay, yeah. No, I think he said, I think he said me. No, my thing, my thing clip for a second.

And I was like, I was waiting for him to say the name at the end. Yeah, okay, sorry, guys. That's on my end. legacy changes legacy changing legacy changing legacy changing

a hyphen yeah not defining not defining Dustin Porey's legacy is you know again he's going to go down as one of the all-time great most beloved fighters

and a loss of Benwant Donit shouldn't change that he's taking a big risk here he is going into this fight with I think little to game other than talking off

in an underpenter which is always good. But let's face it, BSD is the far less established name. He beats Porre. He takes the top five spot that Porre has held for the last, I don't know, for five years. He's been top five guy forever. BSD swoops and takes that. I don't think this is a case, excuse me, sorry, guys.

I don't think this is a case where if Sontini won, we would simply, like, drop Porriy down and then, like, you know, something and move someone else up, and Sontini would be, like, just outside the top five. I think he has to take a top five spot if he wins here, regardless of whether it's a close decision. Even if it's controversial, I think the win is what gets him up there because this is a guy who did not turn pro until that long ago, mostly because of circumstances around like the pro MMA scene in France, but technically has not been a pro for long. So if he's able to score victory, however it happens against Porre in his not even five years into his pro career, it would just be astonishing. And it would put him towards the path of, I think, getting a title shot somewhere down the road.

I've had my doubts about BSD again. maybe I'm just fooled by the lack of relative lack of experience, but he's powered through so many challenges, so many opponents. You could absolutely talk me into him fighting for the title, if not this year, sometime in 2025, early 2025. As for Porre, the reason why I say it's legacy changing is because if he beats BSD, it keeps him in that title talk. He's always in there. You know, he's obviously always in there because just based on what he's done, his fighting style, how much the UFC loves him, how much fans rightfully adore him. He's always in there. always in that conversation.

But a loss to BSD would be a third in his last four fights. He still has name value to get big fights, but at that point, I will boldly say if he loses to BSD, we do not see Dustin Porey fight for a title again. That may happen anyway. Again, maybe he beats Sondini and it's not the cards for him to get a title fight anyway, but to keep those chances alive, I do think he has to win on Saturday. So this is a legacy changing a fight because, listen, if Porek gets a tail shot, it probably ends up to fight.

it probably doesn't go well from anyway. But just to get that shot, I think, would mean a lot. Just to have a chance. And once it's in there, you never know what can happen. So, yeah, I'll stick with legacy changing. Porre has a great one, but it could be just that much better if he beats BSD and gets one more shot at an undisputed UFC title. So, and again, BSD has already been said. This is, the future is now for this guy.

Jed, what's your word? You can use a hyphen, like AK if you'd like. Poria versus Santadie and then show your work. Outlandiculous. That's right, Mike. I made up a word because I don't know what A.K. is doing here. Sure, there are storylines and whatever. Who gives two shits about the stories and the legacy?

These two dudes are about to go hammering tongs on each other for as long as it lasts. And it could last up to 25 minutes. I wrote this week that this is 1A. in the preseason fight of the year favorites, along with Justin Gichi Max Holloway, those two are interchangeable, whichever one of the think is the leading favorite to get it, you're not wrong.

This fight is going to be insane. It's going to be so much fun. BSD, I've comped him to young Justin Gaechee because that's what he is. Like a little more grappling focused in parts, but he is just an all-violence animal in there. And we saw what Dustin Poyer did to Justin Gichi the first time, the young Justin Gichi, before Justin got a little more season, learned a little more lessons and could take advantage in their rematch most recently. This fight is banana grams.

It's going to be absolute chaos. It's going to be the most fun. Any of us have this whole weekend. There is almost no world where this fight isn't fun. The only way it happens is if somebody gets got early, and that doesn't seem very likely. because Dustin Poyer has historically been a pretty durable guy. He's not bulletproof, pretty durable. Ben-Wasandini, man's got a chin on him.

He ain't got no turn about defense. Defense can get the hell out of here because I'm just going to get in and get after it. I think Dustin Poy is going to have a great night on the feet against BSD. I think his defense is too much for BSD. The question then becomes Ben-Wassan-Deney's grappling. He's a very good grappler. I think he's a lot more active with it than people sort of remember because of the highlights and how they look,

incredibly physical and that has always been a way you can attack Porre is getting him to the ground and sort of flattening him out. This fight is going to, maybe this is why AK was just talking about the legacy. Because there's going to be some martial arts mixed in this and there's going to be some hammers chucked and it's going to be some violence and some blood. It's going to kick all the ass.

This is the fight of the weekend, ladies and gentlemen. That's the word for it. I don't even just say anything else, Mike. Okay, well, what about this, Jed? If you can only watch the main event, the co-main event, and one other fight on UFC 299, what's fight three? Oh my God. That's so hard.

That's so hard. Look, here's where AK can get back, because the audience is not going to agree with me. They're not going to, and that's okay. But I don't need, like, I want to see Kevin Holland, Michael Vindam-Page. I don't need to see it. I want to see Gilbert Burns Stadium. Don't need to see it. I am deeply fascinated in Peter Yon Song Yadong.

That could make me sad. You know what's not going to make me sad, Mike? And it's a fight I talked about earlier. I am who I am. I'm going to love the way I love, and you guys can't talk me out of it. You can't keep me from being me. I'm going to let my flag fly. Michelle Demolador Paheta, AK and I know him well,

big, big impact in Miss Fist in the early days. He came into the UFC And I couldn't be more excited about his weird Capoeira doing all sorts of shit He took a loss He started getting a little more boring And like being more responsible good fighter But there's still flashes of delight in them

And I don't know if you guys don't have ever seen Mikhail Olegsajic fight But the man fights as if the clock is his enemy He is going to come and put a pace on Pajara Pajara now that he's up at middleweight maybe he's less concerned about, you know, keeping his gas tank going and he can do some of the weird capoeira shit.

These two dudes are just action figures who are going to hit each other like your kid just until one of them breaks and I got to see which one breaks. That's probably my number three, five, the weekend because I'm a crazy person, but that's where I'm at. Okay, I mean, look, Jed is who he is,

stands by his convictions when he says something he means. Let me love the way I want to love. He loves the way he wants to love, A.K., how do you love? We have main, co-main event. What's number three? You can't go wrong with that pick.

I mean, I'll go a different way, but you can't go wrong with that pick. And when you guys talk about middleweight being a hot division, I mean, they were blessed by Michelle Pareda coming up from welterweight, Michael Olixatia coming down from light heavyweight, and now, you know,

what two beautiful additions to the budding 185 pound division? Nobody made that argument in that case. It was, you know, it was, It was an out of them like, you're right. I'm exactly. I might have lost to someone brought up Michelle Federa and Alexeciuk was coming up. But yes, people don't miss that. That's on the early prelims, so I don't miss that fight for sure.

But I'll go chalk. I'll go with a low-hanging fruit, as Jen mentioned. I am so intrigued by the debut of Michael Vanham Page. I'm a big MVP guy. I'm someone who I think in our rankings, I probably had him ranked higher than anyone else when he won the second, very, very narrowly won the second Douglas. Lima fight. I think I might have been the only one to put him in the top 10 or close to the top 10. And people said I was crazy. The way it played out, he probably, it probably was a little too high.

But he should have been the UFC a long time ago. Enjoyed his Bell Tour run. You know, no regrets as a fan. It was fine seeing him crush a lot of some overmatched opponents over there. And he fell short in some big fights too. But this is where he belongs. He's a little bit up there in age, but he has some great fights left in him. Kevin Holland was the perfect matchup. So big kudos to the master makers. this is the way you should go. I think Holland's going to upset him, actually. I really do.

I think this could end poorly for Michael Page. But I want to find out. I want to find out. And seeing him just the possibility of him, if it going the other way, and him scoring one of his viral chaos of Kevin Holland, and somehow setting up a fight with his countryman, Leon Edwards, would be so hilarious.

So there's a lot of permutations. There's a lot of permutations to this fight. And really, neither result will make me unhappy. Kevin Holland, K.O. fantastic Michael Page, Cal fantastic. Just, I was going to say, if it's boring, obviously, you know, maybe that's not great, but I can't imagine this even if it goes the distance being like an uneventful dull three-rounder.

I don't mean to jinx it, but yeah, I'll go. I think they laid out this card perfectly. I think the O'Malley, the main event, the co-main, I think Kevin Hall and Michael Page, just for the co-main, perfect. Well done. Great job, Yose. Yeah, I thought you're going to go to Jelton Al-Meda, but you'll be watching that one I'm too scared.

I'm too scared. That could get ugly. Sorry, Al-Neda Hive, full confession. I am not confident that Al-Meda's going to win that fight. So I apologize in advance. That could get real ugly for Jelton. It could get real ugly. I hear nothing.

Oh, yeah. I thought that was me again. No, I was muted myself while I came to get it. I just thought you were going to go Yon song because they're probably not going to mix the martial arts all that much, and it's going to be super fun. There's so many great fights. This card is, I'm excited.

Card kicks ass. We're opening with a rematch no one cares about and then everything else Peters. Just 100 dollars an hour. Jojo's last fight. It could be Jojo's last fight.

What do you mean? It could be her last fight. This could be the last week see of Jojo. It is. Okay. Look, I made my stance clear with 300. You need a fight like this. You got to give people time

to get in the arena, sit down and not miss a fight that they don't really care about. So I'm happy for this fight. to be here. Fair enough. All right. The point for round four goes to

Jedmishu's opponent Alexander K. Lee. It's 2 to 2. What a swir. What a swir. I'm so excited. Thank you, thank you. Thank you.

The momentum has been taken away. I thought you were going to fall out of your chair. They're going to comment. And that would have made our show forever. TKO, fourth round, just like Cheeto. Yes. Well, let's see. Let's bring Casey in. That means you're going to the knockout round. We're going to take two questions from the peeps. The two best questions. Jed, you were the most previous winner on this program. Do you want to answer the first question or do you want to answer the second question?

I assume the first one will be the better question, so I'll answer the first one. Okay. All right. So I'm picking two questions. Is that what I'm doing? Yeah, two best questions that you think we've work in this final round. So the final round, they get, are they answering two questions or a different question for each, each contestant? Different question for each contestant. Oh, boy. Okay, okay.

All right, all right. Whatever you want to do. Whatever's the easiest for you, Casey, you decide. You, you surprise me. Give me the fun, good, easy question and give AK the very difficult, boring question. All right, all right. We're doing things different. Give me a second.

Give me a second. All right. Here's our question. Here's our question. For Jed. Let's get the clock ready, though. Oh, shoot. Lots of curveballs here.

Yeah, yeah. I didn't know Jake Paul versus freaking Mike Tyson was going to be announced today. She had a different plan for the Q&A portion of the program, but it's the world we live in, ladies gentlemen. For Jed. There's Jen Michoud. There's Jen Michoud. Already one minute on the clock. Let's see what.

the question is and I will read it for the podcasters. All right. Super chat from LR. You see it on the board here. 60 seconds, thoughts on what has transpired of the last few days with Bloody Albo. Go. I get to answer this.

The flow of the game. This would have been my sort of post-fight speech. If you don't care about Bloody Elbow, I understand that and that's fine. you don't have to. If you are one of those people out there who are celebrating the downfall of Bloody Elbow, I would encourage you to maybe just take some time and reflect because what the sport is losing with Bloody Elbow is immense.

I got my start in many respects with Bloody Elbow. A ton of people in this industry did. And outside of that, their content may not have been for everyone, but their content was essential. The stuff that they did as a media entity, as journalists, is unparalleled. even by ourselves here at M.M.A. fighting. Creams of Don is, for my money, the best journalist in M.A. and has been for some time.

They are, they did the stuff that you want that needs to be done, even if maybe it's not the most popular. My heart goes out to everyone who lost a job over that. And I hope that that space gets filled by somebody real because what we lost some. Well said. All right. That was Jed. We go to AK. And then after AK answers his question.

question, you guys will vote and do so very quickly because there's a lot going on and I have to go to the airport within the next hour and a half. So before working at the airport during PFL. A.K., what is your question? You don't know, but Casey might. There it is. ProFights info coming through. AK, which fighter has the most to gain on Saturday and which has the most to lose? So a two-partner here, which fighter is the most to gain on Saturday, which has the most to lose? Go. Yeah, most to lose is pretty easy.

It's Peoria. It's Peoria. It's Pejoriean. I've been someone who's kind of defended his struggles. And again, I think if you actually watch the fights, I don't think he's fallen up as much people think. He's got mileage on him, but not that much mileage. Only like 10 years in his career. He could have won a couple of those decisions.

But if he loses to Song Yadong, talented guy, great fighter, but a guy who has fallen short, consistently against the elite, it's going to say a lot about where Peyodor Yan is. And not to say that he can't come back, but boy, does Peter Yan need this win? And they've given him a, they've given him a cherry shot. Who has the most to gain? I mean, my boy, Jeltsin Al-Meda, you know, again, I didn't get a chance to talk about him much before. But this is the test, right? People are saying, can he go against the guy who was a wrestler, who was a grappler, right, take down the fence,

and just Almeida him as he has everyone else? I hope so. And if he can, I mean, a fight with Tom Asmel for the interim heavyweight title and then God forbid somewhere down the road, John Jones. Jeltsmane is my guy who got a lot of the line on Saturday. I'm watching a highlight of a knockout that happened on the PFL card. This is the most stupid. I'm looking at it as well. What is this dude doing?

The head kick point right? What was it doing? He just walked in and was like, kick me in the face. Kick me in the face. He just walks in with his hands down. It just almost like stands there, daring. He tried to get the shoulder up to roll it. Sometimes we make mistakes, Mike.

You know, sometimes it happens. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I've watched this clip 800 times in a row. I still don't understand what this guy is doing. Oh, my God. It's going to be on MA fighting soon. And once it's up, you should probably just keep it up and just keep watching. A quality 12-second knockout or whatever.

It looks like 12 is a stoppage. Yeah, it's... The official time is 10 seconds, I believe. A little too much dip on his chip, you know. He's five and a little too hard. What's doing? Like, what the frig is he doing? Oh, my.

Oh, can't wait till this goes up on the website. I still, I have no words. Okay, vote for who you think are weapons. Is it Jedder or is it AK? Or maybe Casey wants to step in and pick the winner. How are we doing on the voting, Casey? What are we doing here? We're just off there.

I had a lot of things going on. So I just put the pull up. So, wow. All right. All right. All waste time. I'll waste time. No, no, no, why you waste.

We've got super chats to burn through. Yeah, yeah, before you waste time. Yeah, we got some super chats. So everyone vote, but we're going to answer some super chats right now. Okay. Melissa, for the host, 24.2 is going to be announced in a couple hours of this week's crazy amount of fight coverage. When do you plan to take on 24.2? I'm going to drop in.

Yes. This is a cross-lifting, right? Okay. Yeah, it's open workout. 24.1 was last week, and it was a doozy. 24.2, obviously we don't know what it is. They announce it. For those who don't do CrossFit, regular weeks, you know every day what the

workout is going to be. When you do open weeks, there's three open workouts and you don't know what it is until the day before. So you have to like, you can't really prepare yourself the way you would throughout the week. I have no idea what this is going to be. I'm going to have to drop in to a gym near where I'm staying in New York to do it. And the funniest part about this is we have like a. competition within our gym where you have to like log stuff in you have to like post your

workout you have to show up to the gym and do your workout and there's themes on these Fridays like last week it was red versus blue this week it's rich frowning which Melissa will know who it is that is not the team I'm on the other team is we have to dress like Richard Simmons so in order for me to actually get a point for not arriving at my gym I have to drop into a stranger gym dress like Richard Simmons to do the open workout. And you know what? Challenge accepted. I am ready.

I am going to dress like Richard Simmons and do this workout in front of a bunch of strangers in New York City. So how about that? Is it frowning the dude that did the like documentary on the fittest person on Arthon or whatever? Yeah. He is like. I watched like a crossfit documentary about like the greatest crossfitter of all time. And that feels like that might have been his name. Yep.

So I will do it tomorrow. morning. It's either going to be at 5 a.m. or 7 a.m. It depends on what's available when I actually land. But thank you. Matasia, can UFC 299 match Joshua versus Francis pay-per-view buys? It's going to smash Joshua versus Francis, is it not? No, not at all. Oh, no? You think Joshua Francis is going to do better than $2.99? Do you guys know the pay-per-view buys that Anthony Joshua pulls? He basically does a million every time out.

Really? Like, interesting. So, because I saw this one come up and I was like, I don't think so, but maybe I'm mistaken and then I pulled it up. And this is per wiki. So you could take this with grains of salt. But Ussick Joshua was 1.2, the 1.2 for both of them, basically against Pulev, he did 850. Like, you see 299's not doing 800,000. If Pulev got it, I got to think this is at least breaking that.

The Ruiz rematch was 1.5. Josh was a really big star in the UK and they sell them pay-per-views in the UK on Sky Sports instead of just doing the UFC thing where you get it for free. I don't think this is beating at box office. Interesting. Because, I mean, Ariel basically

you threw this out there and there were other reports as well. The Fury and Gano Fight did under 100,000. I'm not saying that this is exactly the same, but that one did like bad. Is that in America only? In America, yeah. Yeah. If we're doing America, then yes.

The UFC will beat the America. But Sky Sports is, I'm assuming, selling this on pay-per-view because why wouldn't they? They've done that with all of Anthony Joshua's fights. Also, if you look at Fury's track record, he is a substantially less marketable pay-per-view commodity than Anthony Joshua has been. Before Andy Ruiz happened, Anthony Joshua was supposed to be the first billion. boxer. Like he was

like he's deeply popular and a pay-per-view draw. I think that this will do quite well for them. Okay. But I wouldn't bet my life on it. Like this is a lot of speculation. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think a lot of discussion anytime there's the, they hold these events in Riyadh and Saturday of Riga. It's like it's not there. It's not a major concern for them to make a profit. There's like a prestige to just being the guys to do this.

Right. There's political reasons. There's social reasons for them to Turism. Just people talking about it. So if they happen to make bank on this, obviously they'll be over the moon, but they could operate at a loss and they don't particularly care. It's not really about that.

Yeah. All right. Two more before we go to the votes. What do you, like we'll never get the number, but what do you think $2.99 would do on pay-per-view? Over five? Yeah. I think over five. Yeah.

I think over five. I'm going to say like six. I'm going to say it does like $600. thousand. It's a big card, a lot of big names. Porre being on this card, really elevated. Portia is a big boost, because I think that is also part of it. Like, hearing Aljo talk about his expectation versus reality of Sean O'Malley, the pay-per-view draw kind of confirmed my priors and like, I know Sean O'Malley's popular. I'm not sure if his audience is popular pay-per-view-wise. And I kind of think that some of that's still

true. Yeah, that was a really tough time for that card to happen too, because you had two July pay-per-views. You had Nate Diaz, Jake Paul, like a week and a half before that, and then 292, and then Izzy was fighting at 293, like That's true. There's a lot of weird time for it. It really was.

Which we still got a for sure. If Jan loses his fourth in a row, is this a historic fall? Yeah. Yeah, if anything, just because of the circumstances. Like, it is just, nothing will match. It'll be, it'll be four straight and five of six,

nothing will match how it started. You know, the illegal knee, the illegal knee. And to think that if he hadn't thrown that strike, very likely goes on to win a decision or maybe finishes Aljo in the fifth, I don't know, but very likely goes on to win a decision. It looks great in the Corey Sanhagen fight. But, man, it's just, it's just so weird to think what a weird direction to send the bantamweight division in,

a division that we all love, but I think we would all agree. that not necessarily everyone who's deserved a tablet shot has gotten it. We haven't necessarily gotten all the matchups. We wanted 135. I think we still will in the future. But that one illegal strike just changed things so much. And especially for him, because it's just different circumstances if he's still the champion and who he's fighting probably just his whole life.

His life is different, right? So I don't know. You could argue maybe he still loses a fight to O'Malley. Maybe he still loses a – I've definitely argued that he would have lost his fight to Marab. But maybe he doesn't even have to fight Marab if he's a champion, right? Maybe it's other stuff. You know, we haven't seen Rob get a title shot yet. So maybe Peterion doesn't have to fight him.

So it is definitely historic. Again, it kind of already is regardless of what happens on Saturday. But yeah, that puts the caper on it for sure. Yep, AK got the right answer. It's already historic. So it doesn't matter. But it would be even more. Oh, this is all you, Jed.

Cole. Jet explained to Madam Webb to me. Oh, sure. It's so bad, guys. The color just drained from Jed's face. It's traumatic experience. It's all rushing back to me. I really enjoy watching bad movies in theaters.

It's a thing that I do fairly frequently just because you hear that things are bad, but I want to experience that. It's like, hey, this smells bad. You want to whiff? Like, yeah, I want to know for myself. In UFC 299 terms, I truly don't think that there. I don't know what. even the Joanne Wood fight is better than this. I couldn't be like it's like if Joanne Wood was fighting the entire time.

But no, that's still better. Like it is, it's worse than Argyle, which is one of the worst movies I've seen in some time. So enjoy it. If you're, if you like me like to watch bad things and laugh at them, there's a lot of, a lot of ground ripe for it. I'm not kidding. The villain in it, I honestly believe, gives the worst performance I've ever seen in cinema.

He is so bad. It is appalling that they allowed this to come out. There you go. All right. And the very last super chat. Hi, Jed. Why aren't you answering my call? I'm not getting your call.

I'm super hoping I'll have my number. Actually, doesn't matter if you do because I don't answer from calls from people. I do not know, and I largely block them. So I'm assuming I blocked you if you somehow got my phone number under the assumption that you are a telemarketer. And I've seen the beekeeper, so I will not fall prey to your scams. Oh. The beekeeper, great film.

Great film. The actual best movie of 2024 thus far. Is it too early for it to be eligible for the Oscars that happened in like a few days? It's like it's slipping in there, right? The Oscars don't appreciate that level of cinema. You'll notice the John Wicks were never nominated for Oscars either. But the beekeeper, look, I've seen Anatomy in the fall. I watch the Zone of Interest.

They are both harrowing. Well, not even the fall. Zone of interest is a hairwing, like really well-made film or whatever. It's getting an Oscar nomination. I might think of it occasionally. I'll never watch it again. Neither will most people. I guarantee you I'm going to see the beekeeper a hundred times because it's going to come on T&T.

at like two in the afternoon. And I'm like, hell yeah, I'll watch Jason Statham set fire to people with gasoline. I'm in. So who's really making the better movie? That's what I ask you. What a question it is. I have another question, Casey.

Who won? Did you had or AK? We still have a winner. Oh, we have a winner. Your winner today with 68% of the votes. It was a blowout, guys. It was a blowout. Is, of course, Jed Mishu.

Hey, hey. Come on. Come on. My impassioned defense of bloody elbow. The viewers know good quality journalism, and they supported it. RIP, Bloody Elbow. Thank you for getting me into MMA fighting. If you guys have an issue with Bloody Elbow, you just know that.

They gave you me, so many of you will probably hate them more, but I love them forever, and I hate the new ownership already. So, that's have fun this weekend, guys. I also, I also kind of came from Bloody Albo fan post, baby. Bloody Albo fan post. So, RIP, Bloody Albo, man. Great, great site. Whatever the new Bloody Albo is, I don't know.

But the people support people, the writers from that, from Bloody Albo. All right. Tim Bissell, Steppy Haynes. I don't forget any people. Anton Tijuana, Zainzeman, a lot of great writers. They're going to go on hopefully do other great things, and it might not be with Bloody Albo. It might not be with the new rebranded site,

the remnants of Bruliovo. So look up where these writers are going, and Karim Zadon, of course. So follow their work, please. There you go. Just all lazy bit post bruised knee should be the reconstituted bloody elbow, and I'm for that.

Bruised knee. That's great. That's great. All right, hit the music. We are done. so much going on. And we're going to get the hell out of here. So thank you for watching.

We'll be back next week to react to all of this frigging chaos. Brad Zaganu. Kenny Shock the world. Will Sean O'Malley still be the Bannonweight Champion? Willey, fight for Rob Walsh, really. Did Dustin Poria get back on track? We'll find out next week on the program. So for Jed, for AK, Casey on the Ones on Tuesday.

I'm like, Beck. See you tomorrow, everybody. Good night. Love you all. This has been Between the Links, an MMA fighting production on the Vox Media Network. Oh yeah! Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.